The sheer thought of trying to come up with the ten best axe players is mind bogerling. Where do you start. Ive come up with dozens of players who i think are out of this world just while reading the last 10 posts.
Here are just a few of my favorites, and in no particular order.
Dave Gilmore, Snowy White, Andy Fairweatherlow, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, Bernie Marsden, Micky Moody, Tony ? (Black Sabbath), Kenny Wayne Sheppard, Steve Ray V, Robert Cray, BB King, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix, Ace Frehley, Angus Young, Eddie Van Halen, Brian May, ...the list goes on and on.
The blind guy from Canada, (cant remember his name). And what about the guitar player who played with Bob Marley, Junior Marvin i think his name was.
Brian Robertson, Scott Gorham, the guy from Journey, the guys from Deff Leppard, very good axe players. What criterier do you use to pick the "Best" players. Players who can play a thousand notes a minute or players who have inspired other people to run out a buy a guitar.
This is to difficult. Every time i think of a guitar player to add to the list another name or band pops into my head. Do you only pick players who have done incredible solos or players who have come up with some killer guitar riffs.
Mark Knopler, Slash, Fast Eddie Clark, Paul Stanley, the guys from the House Band on tvs "Rock Star" program.
And think of the dozens and dozens of session men who rarley get a mention. AND AND, for every player who has made it big and become a legendary named guitar player, there are thousands of really brilliant players who have never made it any futher then playing in the bedrooms.
I can think of two unknowns that i have known or seen personally that have never seen the light of day.
Saw a guy playing on Beele Street (literally) on the street, in Memphis. This guy looked like he was in his 70's and looked like he had lived his entire life on the streets. But he had this beaten up old 'OLD' Fender Strat and man he could make that thing sing. I sat on the kerb and listened to him for what seemed like ages.
A friend of mine back in Englad was in my mind a genius guitar player. Never made the light of day. Every time he would join some band that was about to break through something would happen and the band would fold. After Thin Lizzy broke up Phil Lynott started a new band, my mate joined and then shortly after that Phil died. This guy just never got a break.
The world is full of starving musians, and many of them could blow a lot of these so called superstars of any stage.
But for what its worth. If i had to pick my favorite, it would have to be...................
Nigel Tuffnell.
